Nightingale settles her pack and leads the way out the door. "Come on slow pokes! We have an Equestria to save!"

Brass Belle sighs. "This is not going to be worth the reward, is it?" Regardless he follows the batpony.

(If there is anything you want to say to any of the characters anything else you want to establish then do so now, because unless you do the next post I put up will be moving you out into the story proper.)

The band of ponies takes off from the fort, there packs full of the supplies needed to take them safely to there destination. For the first few hours the road was easy and for the less worldly ponies hoped that the trip might all be far easier then they had feared.

At some point they passed over the invisible line that marked where Equestria ended and the lands beyond began. For a time still the roads remained the same and the few ponies they meet where friendly enough, but as the sun began to sink down to the horizon the roads they had to turn down her far less well kept then the ones they where used too. Finally as the last lights of day began to fade the group saw a small, walled town growing closer as they walked.

As they arrived at the closed doors to the town a gruff voiced earth pony held them up for a short while, asking where they intended to go. Brass Belle quickly convinced the gate keeper that they where simply looking for a place to spend the night and he allowed them in, after asking for there weapons to be left with him at the gate house till they left the next morning, though allowing them to keep there armor and other gear as a sign of good faith.

While the town was not large, it did have a small inn and tavern where the gate keeper told the group that they could find room and board.

Inside the tavern are a collection of earth ponies sitting at the benches of long tables. At the front is a bar, behind which a rather grizzled looking Diamond Dog works at at a fire pit, preparing food. Brass Belle go's to talk to the Dog, identifying him as proudly being the owner who would be the one to talk to about rooms, leaving the rest of the group to there own devises.

Nightingale takes a seat by herself near the end of the table, giving herself as much room as possible away from the less then happy looking locals.

Glade, more used to long marches stands to the side in a position where he is out of the way, but able to keep an eye on the room at large.

"Well from what I have heard about the outside of Equestria, things can be much less... friendly." Nightingale looks around the common area. "According to my father, when Equestria called for aid during the second invasion, the ponies out here ignored the call. He said that some of the leaders in these lands had hoped Equestria would fall so that the Changlings would be focused on it rather then them and they could take tracks of land from us as well fell apart." She gives the other ponies a nervous look.

"We have a room for the night." Brass Belle reported, sitting down next to the others.

"Whats the matter?" Brass Belle looks confused. "If you where planing on calling these ponies cowards, that would definitely start a fight, but why would you? No offence to you Equestrians, but these ponies have lived all there lives outside of the protection of Celstia. They face attacks by Diamond Dogs, Changelings and worse every day and still manage to live there lives and raise there families..." He leans in. "Also the rule about no weapons only applies to outsiders. So lets not start a fight with a bunch of ponies who are armed and already are incredibly twitchy around ponies they don't know, alright?"

A pony at another table is giving the group a specious look. Her friends are not looking your way, but they are all armed with small hoof weapons.

"I think Moonlight and my self wholeheartedly agree" Tak says as she glares at Jack whos mouth is bound by magic now "but Jack here has always had a terminal case of hoof in mouth syndrome" to which Dart nods and Jack hangs his head

"We should get something to eat then turn in eerily." Bras Belle says nodding towered the Diamond Dog. "I think it would be wise to hit the road with the sunrise. Unless there is anything else anypony needs while we are in town? The locals might have information we could use, but then aging, there not the most open bunch."

Brass gives the siblings a concerned look. "What is the matter with them?" He looks at Dart. "If your Jack is acting like a colt, which is drawing unwanted attention, but not as much as Tak! She is encouraging his behavior and grand standing to boot, which is far more detrimental to our goals!"

Nightingale frowns. "I hate to agree with Brass on this, but they really are causing a stir and all the time we have seen them together it seems that Jack is constantly acting out with his sister playing into it with her over the top restraints. Its like watching a couple of children play at maturity, but out here that could be incredibly dangerous to all of us!"

Glade shrugs. "Dart, you know when better then any of us, do you think this behavior will continue or is it just them playing around because they are unaware of the seriousness of our situation?"

"believe me, this is them dealing with the seriousness, they haven't been trained properly and they don't know how to, and Jack losing his Fillyfriend has made him wear his emotions on his coat because he never 'proclamed the deepness of his love to her' in his own words and Tak is repressed, she puts all of herself into thouse books she doesn't really know how to show her emotions." Dart said never once letting his eyes raise "now I'll head off to bed"

Brass Belle rolled his eyes. "Oh this is reassuring! They act like children because there deeply physiologically unbalanced!"

"Oh shut up." Nightingale gets up to leave. "This is going to be hard enough without your bad audited."

Brass Belle gave her a nasty smile. "Your right, lets just let being nice get in the way of doing our job! I mean," he laughs mirthlessly. "That's what your dad would tell you to do right? That's why he raised you up with your sister, because how well you understated what it means to be a-" Brass was cut off as Nightingale knocked him backwards off his bench.

The sound of benches shifting caused both ponies to freeze in place. From across the room, now full of ponies holding weapons, the bar tending Diamond Dog leaned forward and pointed towered the rooms. "Room. Now."

The three remaining members of the party shuffled off to there shared rooms, wordlessly switching places so that Nightingale and Brass separated.

*Rooms are now Tak, Jack and Nightingale in one room and Glade, Brass Belle and Dart in the other. Brass has a black eye and Nightingale is visibly upset.*